What’s it going to be?

ETA: Here’s the YouTube link they mentioned

ETA2: I just realized that Garmin has an official MS post about the launch.

https://mooneyspace.com/topic/55437-garmin-game-changer-coming-july-8-garmin-pilot-ios-updates-–-july-2026/

I have been happy with Foreflight to this point, but they have already announced a price increase for this years subscription. 

Thoughts?

My wife and I have the week 6/7-13 off and are planning a trip to the southwest and looping back through eastern CA/NV. Home base western Montana. 
Current concept: 

• Visit our son in Salt Lake for a day or so. I tested out KSLC last month and it wasn't bad, so thinking of stopping there. 
• Down to KGCN (Grand Canyon), spend some time on ground that afternoon and probably the next. Early AM self-guided air tour the following day along 1+ VFR corridors, maybe up to Lake Powell as noted in the below-referenced thread. 
• Head west, eventually to Mammoth Lakes KMMH (or Bishop?) and overnight, hang out for part of a day
  • on the way, maybe fuel; looks like will have to jog around given RAs and MOAs and the KLAS B
  • ideally overfly Death Valley, one of my old college haunts; probably won't land as not much in the way of services
• Up to Reno KRNO whence my wife will fly back out for work, I fly home to KHRF

Anyone have any feedback on those? It sounds like KGCN is pretty well-reviewed in terms of access and service. We'd probably get a car and drive and hike a bit. 

Idea is to keep some slack for both weather and following our noses, ie. not too tight an intinerary. OTOH I'm amazed how far you can go in a few hours.

Thanks!
David

PS. a lot here from a few years ago, also some Beechtalk threads generally talking about Prescott and Page as bases, also apparently KLAS isn't too bad for a small plane: 

I was wondering if anyone has experience with hanger reversion and or difficulty renewing their land lease.  I "own" a T hangar in a long row of T hangars that forms a condo association.  It started with a 35 year lease and it's running out in 3 years.  We've been working to renew the lease (at updated land lease rates), but have been getting some pushback and/or stonewalled.  Additionally, several other hangars on the airport have not been allowed to renew and are thus now owned/managed by the airport.  IMO, it doesn't make sense for the "government" (i.e. airport board) to take people's property and rent it out as a landlord.  If they need more money and want to target the land lease rates to get that money, that seems a more reasonable way to go.  Then the people and the market can decide if they want to keep/sell the hangars and what they're worth while the airport continues to receive its income.  Unfortunately, I must be misunderstanding something about how this works.

Has anyone had experience they'd like to share in working through this type of thing and getting a new lease?  If you'd prefer to DM me details that would be great too.

Thanks for your time,

Drew

This is an airport I know very well. The skydiving operation has had some problems, including crashing a King Air into the roof of a hangar last year. 

https://apnews.com/article/butler-missouri-plane-crash-dead-0f074de40ce690e76c19ffbe183d1875

ETA: I replaced the original Reuters link with an AP link here that I’m hoping has less obnoxious ads per @PeteMc below 

Nationwide 100LL.com shows $6.91 for 100LL and $7.19 for Jet-A

Nationwide AirNav.com Fuel Report shows $6.46 for 100LL and $6.96 for Jet-A

$6.45/gallon is exactly what I am paying for Self Serv 100LL here in "low cost Texas".  At the busiest General Aviation airports on the West side of Houston, Jet-A is $8.07 @ Sugar Land, $8.20 @ Houston Executive and $7.59 @ David Wayne Hooks - surprisingly all above the national average.

“U.S.-based Arcline Investment Management has announced it is buying Continental Aerospace Technologies from the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) for total consideration of $535 million. The deal was announced June 8. Arcline has $30 billion in assets and among its holdings is Signia Aerospace, which owns Hartzell Aviation, Hartzel Propeller, Cleveland Wheel and Brake Systems and a half dozen other aviation concerns. Arcline describes itself as a “growth-oriented private equity firm” that “seeks to build the next generation of Industrial Compounders—market-leading, non-disruptible industrial platforms designed to consistently grow earnings over decades.”

“Continental was established in 1905 and built its first aircraft engine in 1929. Its engines are in tens of thousands of light aircraft. The company was bought by AVIC in 2011, which in turn bought German diesel aircraft engine manufacture Thielert out of bankruptcy in 2013. The company went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2018. “Continental is a highly respected platform with a long history of engineering leadership, trusted customer relationships and mission-critical products that support the global general aviation fleet,” Arcline said in a news release. “The Company’s technical capabilities, large installed base and reputation for reliability fit naturally alongside our aerospace and defense systems and subsystems strategy.””

Thanks.

That said, I'll be solo on this trip, so more tolerant of dusty old buildings, port-a-potties, and such, in exchange for cheaper fuel.  There are a few smaller airports on the south side of town (some private, not sure if I could access by calling for PPR).  If someone were to specifically recommend an alternative to KLBB, I'd take a look.  Especially if it meant the ability to put the airplane in a hangar for a reasonable cost if there is a threat of hail for the few days I'll be there.

Anyone care to make a recommendation?

Has anyone else experienced this? I do have all of the US selected for download, the same as I do for Foreflight.

What am I doing wrong?

For those in the know, do you prefer HND or VGT?

Looking for a nice FBO with reasonable ramp fees (extra credit for short term hangar space).

I'll be staying on the strip for 2-3 nights, so a 10-15 minute difference in the drive from the airport isn't a huge deciding factor. Assuming I'll be coming in from the South East via DRK, or maybe EED on the South.

Looking at METARs right now VGT runways look like better winds, is that pretty typical?

Thanks!

Max

Does anyone have any input (I know you do) on purchasing a Uavionix Tail Beacon vs the Tail Beacon X? The X is more costly, and works differently, but they both serve the same function. What say the Mooniacs?

https://avbrief.com/sonex-shuts-down/?utm_source=newsletter-174&utm_medium=email

https://avbrief.com/new-owner-restarts-sonex/

This subject has been covered many times on here, but it's different when you hear it on a TV news broadcast.

I haven't let my cat watch this yet as I keep a handheld radio here at the house. 

Waco Aircraft Ceases Operations - AvBrief.com

Per AvBrief:  "Waco Aircraft Corporation has ceased operations and terminated most, if not all, of its employees. About 60 people worked at the plant in Battle Creek, Michigan. Employees left work as usual on Tuesday and shortly afterward received an email telling them not to report for work on Wednesday. A sign was posted on the front door on Wednesday confirming the bad news. "

"The company was sold by its American owners to a German company in 2020 who invested heavily in new facilities at Battle Creek. The company recently displayed at Sun ‘n Fun and there was no indication it was on the brink of closing."

email me at analogwings.apps@gmail.com to join the testing group

To join, either of the following links should work:
playstore link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jettrack.flight        → tap “Become a tester”    → install from Play Store

weblink: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.jettrack.flight

Some background:  I am an analog CMOS IC designer by profession and have been part of MS for ~15 years. This app is geared towards commercial airline travellers but I have put in enough hooks in it to be useful for GA pilots. This app came out my interest in knowing solar time vs. civil time and how time "speeds up/slows down" on long international flights. The timezone related graphs were challenging and I am aware things may get weird on circumpolar flights. It has a rudimentary PFD (Pro version) which I think works reasonably well as a backup AI.  There are some interesting graphs which might appeal to time geeks. No manual yet, but hopefully users can play with it and figure things out!

Pro mode is available and free for testers (no credit card required). For GA, Pro mode works best as it has more features.
Please stay opted-in and try using it for ~14 days so testing counts.

Appreciate any comments and suggestions especially things like installation issues and crashes as I open it up for general testing. It's a pretty onerous process releasing an app on Google and I am finding that out now.

Thanks.

-Sriram

Recently got relocated to Denver and I'm trying to sniff out a lead on a hangar or covered tie down. Going through all the usual channels but figured I'd also post here.

Happy to take space available in an existing setup or rent from someone who owns. Currently on the wait-list for CFO, need something until that comes open - although if a decent deal came up for long term I'd consider that as well.

Thanks in advance! 

A few bullet points:

- Vector has been collecting landing fees at certain airports for some time using cameras that capture your tail number by sending a bill in the mail to the address for the registration

- If you don't pay, you'll get letters from them threatening a Iien against your aircraft.

- Whether liens have actually happened and they have real legal ability to obtain them is unclear to me (I have zero legal expertise here).

- Regardless, they market 99+% collection rate in promoting their service to airports, so people are sufficiently intimidated into paying up.

- They are increasingly using ads-b data to supplement their data gathering.

- Apparently they access unfiltered ads-b data from the FAA that identifies folks who enroll in the PIA program (the level of privacy above LADD).

- Folks have gotten bills based on ads-b data without ever touching wheels at the field (e.g. low approaches) or simply by transiting the airspace above.   

- The number of airports with these systems is rapidly growing - it's an appealing revenue engine for airport managers, municipalities, etc. including for smaller/nontowered fields that have enough operations to make it worth the expense of the company installing their systems.  This makes is so much easier for fields where it was previously impractical to impose landing fees to rake in new revenue.

- When I emailed Vector a while back asking for a list of airports using their systems, I got a response requesting my company information and stating they would consider the request if I'm willing to sign an NDA 

- Someone on the related fb group managed to bypass that nonsense and come up with a fairly current list of the 90+ fields currently using them (pasted below).

- I've landed at many fields on this list but only gotten a bill from them once (East Hampton).  Some fields are newly added, but many simply don't collect for planes under 6000 lb MTOW

-Don